Little known to the general public, the Observatory of the Economic Francophonie (OFE) of the University of Montreal is at the heart of discussions relating to the dynamics of development in the Francophonie. Created in June 2017 in partnership with the government of Quebec, the International Organization of La Francophonie and the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the OFE is one of the concrete manifestations of the Economic Strategy for La Francophonie adopted at the Dakar summit in November 2014.
The Observatory was officially launched on June 14, 2017, during the International Forum of the Americas held in Montreal. He has since built up a network of experts spread across the French-speaking world. Its main missions are to provide evidence, in French, for decision-makers in the public and private sectors; to network French-speaking researchers on questions of economic Francophonie; and to create synergies between different environments through influence and advocacy activities. The OFE plays a very active role in sharing and strengthening capacities in French-speaking countries, particularly those on the African continent. The OFE prioritizes youth and promotes equality between women and men.
As part of the Francophonie Month festivities, the OFE held, from March 19 to 22, the fourth edition of the International Conference on Economic Francophonie (CIFE2024), in collaboration with the University of Yaoundé II, on the campus of the Institute of International Relations of Cameroon. The theme of CIFE2024 was “The future of French-speaking SMEs on global markets”.
SMEs are the main accelerators of growth and development in both developed and developing states. They represent 93% of businesses in non-member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and 95% in OECD member countries. In Canada, SMEs represent 98.1% of all businesses with employees (Statistics Canada, 2022). In France, the figure rises to 99%. In sub-Saharan Africa, the African Union Development Agency estimates that there are 44 million micro, small and medium-sized enterprises on the continent, which provide 80% of jobs. In emerging countries, seven out of ten official jobs created come from SMEs (World Bank, 2023).
However, the participation of SMEs in global trade remains low, particularly for SMEs in the French-speaking world. However, according to the World Trade Organization (WTO), due to the cumulative effects of new information technologies, including the Internet in particular, the growing opening of global markets and the appearance of new commercial platforms, SMEs can become important and essential players in global trade (WTO, 2016).
By making access to markets the central theme of the 2024 edition of its International Conference, the OFE above all wanted to put on the agenda of public authorities the imperative need to help African SMEs in the French-speaking space to better integrate global value chains. It is in the interest of our States and our common solidarity. In addition to the traditional commercial obstacles that they generally have to overcome, SMEs in French-speaking Africa are grappling with unique challenges.
A study carried out by the International Trade Center (ITC) and the Permanent Conference of African and French-speaking Consular Chambers demonstrated that African SMEs have very difficult access to international markets, in particular because of their low productivity, but also because of their lack of -compliance with international standards (ITC, 2018). According to this study, “only 9% of microenterprises sell their products/services abroad, compared to 25% for small enterprises, 35% for medium-sized enterprises, and 47% for large companies” (ITC, 2018).
In a dialogic approach, exchange of knowledge and experiences, CIFE2024 will have made it possible to outline some recommendations resolutely anchored in local African realities. Four days, more than 200 experts from around twenty French-speaking countries, a group made up of economists, managers, sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists and lawyers, business men and women , actors from political, economic and socio-cultural circles, have formulated concrete proposals which outline new possibilities for French-speaking SMEs in Africa. Which rely on a requirement for structural transformation of SMEs.
In short, the experience broken down into thirteen thematic sessions, four round tables, three plenary sessions, an entrepreneurship fair as well as a variety of training courses for young entrepreneurs will have enabled the 600 participants, panelists and speakers, to address the bottlenecks bottlenecks faced by SMEs in the French-speaking world in their effort to conquer sub-regional, regional and international markets, and to make proposals likely to address the necessary adaptive transformations. Very soon, an expert report will present the Yaoundé recommendations in more detail. Proposals that will fuel future discussions as part of the Francophonie Summit scheduled for October 2024 in Paris.